THE HISTORY OF ANATOMICAL SCIENCE 303 
also, in defining the term, acknowledges its source : 
“ Les organes sont ho 7 nologues comme s’expri- 
merait la philosophie allemande ; c’est-a-dire, qu’ils 
sont analogues dans leur mode de ddveloppement,” 
&c. (“ Annales des Sciences,” tome vi., 1825, 
P-341-)’' 
The last words of the citation from Geoffroy St. 
Hilaire have a curious significance. Goethe had 
pointed out, and neither he, nor Geoffroy, nor 
Oken, were blind to the fact, that the study of 
development must have a good deal to say about 
the problems of philosophical anatomy ; though, 
as I have mentioned, that branch of morphology 
had not advanced far enough to enable Geoffroy 
to appreciate its full importance, before the pub- 
lication of Von Baer’s works, in the course of the 
decade 1828 to 1838. But embryology began to 
show its capacity for playing the part of a criterion 
in morphology pretty early. It has already been 
stated that Wolff demonstrated the homology 
of leaves, stamens, and carpels, by tracing their 
development. Later, it was readily shown that 
Vicq d' Azyr’s doctrine of the homology of the limbs 
had its proof in the observation that they arise from 
rudiments of similar character and relations. In 
all the higher vertebrate animals, the fore and 
hind limbs are, at first, very similar, and they 
become differentiated by successive steps. So 
® ‘ On the Structural Rela- {Philosophical Magazine, xxvii. 
tions of Organised Beings ’ p. 526). 
